--- title: "Broadway Melody of 1936" year: 1935 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/broadway-melody-of-1936" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-19T22:51:03.426670+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T22:51:15.336755+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) Directed by Roy Del Ruth · 1h 43m · Music, Comedy **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 71 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Everyone in the film waits for the plot to finish so Eleanor Powell can dance, and so did we > Roy Del Ruth’s backstage musical has a story nobody could care about and a leading lady nobody could stop watching. Eleanor Powell’s tap numbers are the reason to see it; the songs are the reason to stay. ## Synopsis Bert Keeler (Jack Benny) writes a Broadway gossip column and is short of copy. Robert Gordon (Robert Taylor), a young producer, is putting on a musical with money from Lillian Brent (June Knight), a wealthy widow who expects the leading role in return. Irene Foster (Eleanor Powell), Gordon’s sweetheart from Albany, turns up at his office wanting a part, and he tells her to go home. Keeler, to needle him, invents a French star called Arlette and prints that Gordon has signed her. Gordon’s secretary Kitty Corbett (Una Merkel) decides that if Arlette does not exist, Irene may as well be her. Snoop (Sid Silvers) trails after Keeler, and Ted (Buddy Ebsen) and Sally (Vilma Ebsen), a brother-and-sister act, rehearse on the roof of Irene’s boarding house. ## Review The poster tells us we have waited seven years for this, meaning since [*The Broadway Melody*](https://film.one/film/the-broadway-melody) of 1929, and it is honest about the one thing the two films share, which is the title. This is a new show, put on by MGM in the usual way: a producer, a rich backer, a gossip columnist making trouble, a girl from out of town who can dance. Roy Del Ruth directs it as if the plot were a corridor between rooms, and the rooms are where the numbers are. He is right to. Eleanor Powell is the film. She is tall for a dancer and she taps with the whole of her body, arms flung out, back arched, spinning off a kick into a run of steps so fast the sound seems to arrive late. Charles Rosher photographs her head to foot in clean, bright light and mostly leaves the camera where it is, so we can see that the feet doing the work belong to the woman doing the smiling. There is no trick in it and none is needed. Her first proper solo, in Gordon’s office, made us sit forward, and the finale had us grinning like children for reasons we could not have put into words while it was happening; the reason, on reflection, is that she is plainly having a better time than anyone else in the building and has earned it. The songs are by Nacio Herb Brown and two of them, the reviews remind us, were later borrowed whole for *Singin’ in the Rain*. You Are My Lucky Star is sung more than once, which is fair enough. Broadway Rhythm carries the closing number. The best of the lot is Sing Before Breakfast, done on a tenement roof with Powell and the Ebsens, Buddy long and loose-jointed and Vilma neat beside him, all three in ordinary clothes and in step with the washing lines. It is the one number that looks like people rather than a production. Jack Benny takes top billing and plays Bert Keeler as a man who has never once been in a hurry, letting each insult sit before he delivers it. He is funnier than the material. Una Merkel and Sid Silvers do the fast-talking comic couple, and Silvers, who co-wrote the script with Jack McGowan, gives himself most of the good lines. Robert Wildhack turns up as The Snorer and delivers a lecture on the varieties of snoring, with demonstrations, and we laughed far harder than the idea deserves. Frances Langford, appearing as herself, sings with a warmth the rest of the cast cannot match. What does not work is everything holding these things together. Moss Hart’s story asks us to believe that Robert Gordon cannot recognise the girl he grew up with because she has put on a veil and an accent, and then asks us to believe it again in the next scene. Robert Taylor is very handsome and about as mobile as the furniture, and when he sings he does it with the caution of a man reading the words off the back of a chair. June Knight’s Lillian Brent is a villain who never does anything villainous. Blanche Sewell cuts the numbers with patience and the dialogue with the same patience, which is a mistake; the film runs 103 minutes and a good half of it is people explaining who Arlette is. Set against the year’s other musicals, the difference is plain. Over at RKO, Astaire and Rogers were making dances into conversations. Powell has no partner who can keep up with her, so she dances alone, and the numbers are exhibitions rather than exchanges. Adrian dresses her for the finale in tails and a top hat, which suits her better than any of the frocks, and Rosher gives the stage a hard white shine that makes the tapping look like something struck off a surface. It is a marvellous display. It is not a story. Watch it as you would a revue. Give the plot the attention it gives you, keep a thumb near the remote if you must, and do not feel bad about it; the film has arranged itself so that nothing important happens while anyone is talking. When Powell starts to move, put the thumb down. *Fi1m score 72, published 19 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (4) - **Radio Times**, Tony Sloman (4/5): The critic calls it a terrific, warm MGM musical follow-up with a fabulous score including songs later heard in Singin' in the Rain. Eleanor Powell's dancing is singled out for particular praise. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-botdyd/broadway-melody-of-1936/) - **The New York Times** (75/100, inferred): The picture is a reliably entertaining song-and-dance show in the familiar backstage tradition, with new faces, songs, and dances. Eleanor Powell stands out as a rangy, likable performer with the most eloquent feet in show business, supported by sprightly production numbers and infectious songs. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/19/archives/the-broadway-melody-of-1936-with-eleanor-powell-at-the-capitol.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The film centers on Eleanor Powell's star-making turn as a talented dancer posing as a French performer to win over Robert Taylor's character. The story is a hodge-podge but features strong songs like 'Broadway Rhythm' and inventive dance numbers that mix styles effectively. [Read](https://variety.com/1934/film/reviews/broadway-melody-of-1936-1200411085/) - **Time Out**, GM (60/100, inferred): The review describes the film as otherwise routine but notes that Eleanor Powell blazes through it with her dancing in this luxurious MGM musical with a contrived plot. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/broadway-melody-of-1936) ## Details - **Director:** Roy Del Ruth - **Director:** Roy Del Ruth - **Screenplay:** Jack McGowan, Sid Silvers - **Story:** Moss Hart - **Cinematography:** Charles Rosher - **Editor:** Blanche Sewell - **Music:** Nacio Herb Brown - **Costume design:** Adrian - **Producer:** John W. Considine Jr. - **Cast:** Jack Benny as Bert Keeler; Eleanor Powell as Irene Foster; Robert Taylor as Robert Gordon; Una Merkel as Kitty Corbett; Sid Silvers as Snoop; Buddy Ebsen as Ted; June Knight as Lillian Brent; Vilma Ebsen as Sally - **Runtime:** 1h 43m - **Release (the US):** 20 September 1935 - **Genres:** Music, Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtOqMfgRrZ8 ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: ES. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1936: Best Picture (nominated); Best Story (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Born to Dance* (1936): Powell again, Cole Porter songs, and a plot that gets out of the way faster - *Top Hat* (1935), Fi1m 87: The same year at RKO, where the dancing is a conversation rather than a display — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/top-hat.md) - *42nd Street* (1933), Fi1m 82: The backstage musical done with a Depression edge and Busby Berkeley’s patterns — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/42nd-street.md) - *Singin' in the Rain* (1952), Fi1m 93: Where these songs ended up, in the film that knew what to do with them — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/singin-in-the-rain.md) - *The Young Girls of Rochefort* (1967): Demy’s pastel French answer to MGM, with Gene Kelly wandering through it --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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